Show and Tell
by fangirlu
Summary: Jack takes inventory.  Allison is his checklist.  Definitely not as dirty as it sounds.  In fact, it's really just feel good fluff with a tiny sprinkle of sexy.


**Disclaimer:** These wonderful characters are Jamie Paglia's invention. I just borrow them from time to time.

**Spoiler Warning:** If you've never seen _Toy Story 3_, be warned. Nothing major, but a simple sentence could ruin the whole movie for you.

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><p>"I'll show you mine, if you show me yours."<p>

Allison laid her cheek on her folded arms and settled herself more comfortably on her stomach. Jack's bed had always been ridiculously comfortable, but as relaxed as she felt at the moment, she could have been lying on a pile of sharp rocks and she probably wouldn't have noticed. After several hours of lovemaking—several _hours, _she giddily repeated to herself—they should both be dead to the world, but it was as if neither of them wanted to waste any precious time sleeping.

Dark eyes wide in the low light of the large bedroom, she studied his handsome face carefully, trying to gauge the sincerity of his statement. What she saw didn't surprise her in the least. His blue gaze was earnest, curious and even a tiny bit…excited? Though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer, she asked anyway. "You really want to know?"

Jack turned on his side to face her and propped his head on his hand. "I thought you knew by now," he said, giving her that gorgeous smile, the one that never failed to make her knees a little weak. "I want to know everything about you, Ally."

And just like that, he'd made her melt. Again.

"How do you always do that?" she asked him, amazed despite herself at his ability to constantly keep her off balance. He'd been tying her tongue in knots and making her blush like a schoolgirl since the first day they'd met.

"Do what?"

_Make me love you even more than I already do,_ she thought, mentally grimacing at how sappy that had sounded even in the privacy of her own mind. But it was true. Although Jack knew she loved him, she wasn't sure that he was aware of just how much. He'd professed to loving her since the day they'd met, and while it had taken her a bit longer to get there, her feelings for him had grown just as strong.

And that scared her silly.

Because her track record with men was unlucky at best and downright frightening at worst. She didn't think she could survive any more heartbreak. Losing Kevin's father had tested her in ways she never would have imaged and she'd suffered exponentially after Nathan had died. But losing Jack…losing Jack would absolutely kill her.

Even the mere thought made her heart beat an unsteady rhythm in her chest. Suppressing a shiver, she pushed the unpleasant thought away and said, "How do you always know exactly what to say to make me want to ravish you?" _Chicken._

Jack shrugged modestly, but his mischievous grin gave him away. "It's a gift." He tenderly tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear before resting his large warm hand in the center of her back. "So…? Show and tell time?"

She couldn't help but smile at the hopeful tone in his voice. "Alright," she agreed, fighting against the urge to close her eyes and arch like a contented cat as he lightly brushed his fingertips back and forth across her skin.

"Really?" His fingers stopped moving and he eyed her skeptically. "That was almost _too_ easy."

"Well, I _did_ promise to tell you."

"Yes, but if I recall, you were under a certain amount of…duress at the time."

"And it was the best duress ever." At the memory, Allison could feel a rather naughty smile wreath her face. Promising to tell Jack whatever he wanted to know in exchange for physical…_relief_...had been one of her most inspired ideas.

"I can be very persuasive," Jack deadpanned, leaning down to plant a kiss on her shoulder. "Now, where should I start?" he murmured to himself. He sat up and pulled off the crisp white sheet covering her lower body, fully exposing her nakedness to the cool air. She started to turn over, but he placed a hand on her back and pressed lightly. "Stay just like this."

Skin growing warm under the intensity of his gaze, she shivered lightly as he ran one hand down the long line of her spine, over the swell of her buttocks and down the length of her legs. After another journey along the same path, his hand finally came to rest on her right ankle.

"I think I'll start here," he said from his new spot near her feet, wrapping his fingers around her ankle and squeezing gently. Lifting her foot into the air, he ran first his thumb and then his lips over a smooth, sickle-shaped scar on the inside of her ankle. "How'd you get this?"

Even though she knew full well what he was referring to, she couldn't resist glancing over her shoulder at him. Jack was fingering the scar curiously, as if it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen. It was about two inches long, with a slight shine to it that was noticeably lighter than her natural dusky hue.

"I fractured my ankle right before my senior year of college," she explained, screwing her face up at the memory. "I fell down the stairs during a visit home over the summer."

Jack winced. "Ouch." He ran his finger over the mark again. "The scar?"

"Two surgeries—one to repair the fracture; the second a year later to remove the hardware." At his blank look, she added, "An orthopedic bone screw."

"Ah."

"I had to wear a cast for two months during the hottest part of the summer." She shuddered lightly. "It was _not_ a pleasant experience."

"I can imagine." He laid her foot down gently and picked up the other one, pressing small kisses to a small, dark, round scar just above the arch. "And this?"

Being a little more ticklish than she cared to admit, Allison squirmed and stifled a giggle. "Jack," she gasped.

He grinned. "Sorry."

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

Jack seemed to give her question serious thought before shaking his head, his grin growing wider. "No…not really." He turned his head and pressed his lips to her skin again. "Tell me."

"Nothing exciting," she said, trembling as his warm breath fanned her skin. "Just the chicken pox."

Nodding, he laid her foot back onto the snowy sheets and trailed a long finger over the gentle curve of her calf to the outside of her left knee. He paused to caress a long, thin line etched into her skin. "This one?"

"A rusty nail."

"Oh, come on—there has to be more to the story than that."

Allison sighed, but it was born more from embarrassment than exasperation. Jack was right—there _was_ more to the story. But as it wasn't one of her proudest moments, she was loath to share it.

"Come on," he cajoled. "You can tell me."

"It happened at a high school graduation party," she finally said reluctantly.

As if he could sense what was coming next, Jack's smile turned smug. "Do tell."

She sighed again. "I'd had a little too much to drink and stumbled into an old wooden fence. Needless to say, after suffering through a tetanus shot and several hours of my parents telling me how disappointed they were, I've never been drunk again."

Jack eyebrows climbed his forehead in surprise. "Straight-laced Allison Blake was once a law-breaking lush? Who knew?"

At his teasing, she tapped his bare leg playfully with her foot. "Stop it."

"Moving on." Jack quickly ducked his head, but she could see the white flash of teeth. He swung a leg over her thighs, straddling her body and leaning over to trail kisses over the swell of her bottom and across her lower back before he gently turned her over.

"Jack," Allison whispered hoarsely, arching against his mouth as he brushed his lips over a spot low on her pelvic bone. "That is _not_ show and tell."

"Yes, it is," he quipped, tracing the edges of a dark, amorphous shape with his tongue. "I'm showing you that I think you have the world's sexiest birthmark, and you're going to tell me that birthmarks aren't sexy."

If Allison wasn't too busy trying to stifle the moan she could feel cresting on her tongue, she would have laughed out loud. The man knew her too well.

"Well, they aren't," she panted, their eyes meeting across the smooth expanse of her skin.

"Yours is."

"Flatterer."

Jack's answering grin was utterly roguish. With one more brush of lips against skin, he stretched out beside her, rolling her onto her left side so that her back was flush against his chest.

"As you've probably guessed by now, I saved the best for last." His voice was nearly giddy, laced with the eager anticipation usually reserved for kids on Christmas morning.

Allison shook her head with good-natured exasperation. "You've been waiting for this, haven't you?"

"Oh, yeah!" Behind her, she could sense his emphatic nod as his fingers plucked restively at a patch of skin low on her hip. "Since the first time I saw you naked. I wanted to ask you then, but I was _way_ too distracted. And then work got in the way. So unfortunately, I've had to wait for the answer to one of Eureka's best-kept secrets."

"Well, being that this is only the second time that you've seen me naked, you didn't have that long to wait. And it's not a secret."

"It was a _long_ two days," Jack protested, inserting a leg between hers and pulling her closer. "And if it's not a secret, I take it you wouldn't mind if I shared it with a few people?"

"Only if you don't mind everyone in town knowing that you cried when we watched _Toy Story 3 _last week."

"Hey—those toys had one foot in the grave! And they were cute." He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction, then sighed when she remained stubbornly silent. "Fine. I'll keep your non-secret, if you'll keep mine."

It was Allison's turn to be smug. "Deal."

"So?" He glanced down at the spot where his hand rested against her skin, his thumb circling the quarter-sized tattoo over and over again. "You gonna keep me in suspense here?"

She placed her hand over his and stared thoughtfully at one of the only truly spontaneous things she'd ever done in her life. "Do you know what it is?"

"Of course," he said, sounding almost indignant that she'd asked. "Who doesn't? It's the yin-yang symbol." He ran his fingers over the small black mark again. "Funny…you've never struck me as the "higher plane of existence" type. It looks more like something Lexi would have."

Allison smiled at the thought of Jack's free-spirited sister. "I'm not—not really. But the symbol and what it represents has always intrigued me. I've always loved the thought of complete opposites having to depend on each other to thrive. To survive."

"Kind of like us."

Though he couldn't see her face, she raised her eyebrows in pleasant surprise. Jack's insight never ceased to amaze her. Although she looked at her tattoo every day, the thought had never occurred to her. She'd never thought of their relationship—first as friends and then as lovers—in quite those terms before. But wasn't that exactly what they were? Yin and yang? Two halves of a larger whole, interdependent on one another to bring out the very best of each other?

The answer was a glorious and resounding _yes_.

"Kind of like us," she agreed with a soft smile.

"So what's the story behind Tattoogate?"

She grinned at the term. "Again…nothing too exciting. I got it right after I graduated from medical school. I'd been thinking about it for a while, but had always been too chicken to do it. What would people think? Hell, what would my _parents_ think?"

"And what _did_ your parents think?"

"They hated it."

Jack rested his chin on her shoulder. "I guess I can't blame them. Even though she's legally an adult, I don't think I'd be too thrilled if Zoe came back from Harvard with one."

Lost in thought, Allison leaned her head on her hand and stared sightlessly at the wall across from the bed. "I'd been so disciplined for so long that I just wanted to …I don't know…shock even myself by doing something a little out of character for once." She leaned forward a little and looked back at him. "Does that make sense?"

"It makes perfect sense. You were in the process of starting a new chapter in your life—of finding your way. This"—he fingered the bisected symbol with reverent fingers—"was an important stone in the path of your journey."

Before she could stop them, Allison's eyebrows shot skyward. "That was surprisingly poetic," she teased.

"I took a creative writing class in college."

She stared at him.

"What? I needed the elective."

Chuckling softly, she turned over, pressed her body closer to his, and buried her face into the curve of his neck. "You know, I've actually thought about getting it removed." It was a thought that had crept into her mind with far too much frequency over the years for her to fully ignore.

"Don't," Jack insisted, his voice deep and earnest. "It's a part of who you are now. Do you really want to erase that?"

_I don't deserve this man,_ Allison thought as she rolled him onto his back and straddled his hips. _I really, really don't._

"I love you," she said simply, pressing her lips to his in a brief, tender kiss.

"I love hearing you say that." He choked back a startled laugh when she poked him hard in his side. He grabbed her hand and brought her fingers to his lips. "And I love _you_, Allison Blake."

Allison rewarded him with a luminous smile. "Much better. Now…didn't you say something about showing me yours?"

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><p><strong>AN: **The thought of Allison with a tattoo wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to find a plausible way to get it out of my head. And I've always loved the way that Jack and Allison relate to one another, so I also wanted to explore that aspect of their relationship. Hope you enjoyed!


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